The head of the new office, Cincinnati's Chief Performance Officer Chad Kenney, began putting a team of data analysts in place not long after he came to Cincinnati from Baltimore in November.

When he was hired, Kenney had three objectives, according to Black:

1) Design and implement performance management agreements with department heads.2) Establish an Innovation Lab to address some of the city's most challenging operational and customer service issues.3) Design and establish a Citistat program, which will use data to methodically zero in on areas of underperformance and improve service throughout city government.Source: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov

During the ribbon cutting event at the Data Analytics office, the city manager indicated those objectives have been met and said now it's time to use data, big and small, to help make Cincinnati operate as efficiently and effectively as possible.

"We have to do our work faster," Black said. "The world is becoming faster. We have to move faster. We have to have a sense of urgency in everything that we do. In order to get better, we have to understand how we're currently operating."

As part of CincyStat, department heads in the Queen City will discuss performance metrics every two weeks with the city manager and assistant city manager and the leaders of offices, including human resources, law, budget and information technology.

Mayor John Cranley, referring to the room in the city's Centential II building where CincyStat meetings will take place, said, "You look at a room like this and your first reaction might be, 'This is like an inquisition.' Over time, they're going to realize this is a team effort and there is something valuable to come from being put on the spot and improving your game and being ready the next time you come back. And over time people will look forward to it and not be fearful of it. And changing a culture is very difficult and it takes time, and it's places like this that will do it. So I couldn't be happier about all this."

Cranley discussed the notion that some city workers might be anxious about the city's growing reliance on data.

"We don't think there's anything wrong with this city that we can't fix, the people of this city," Cranley said. "We're all working hard, and we have been working hard. All we're trying to do is figure out a way to collaborate better to improve service, just like any business would try to improve service."

When problems and challenges are identified, Kenney and his team will convene with experts in the Innovation Lab to figure out ways to solve the issue at hand.

"It's about tracking our work, measuring and monitoring our work," Black said. "If we're going to spend a dollar on something, what's going to come back to the city in return? So it's all about outcomes and results, not level of effort."

"While we still have to use tax dollars to do the essential services for the city, the citizens will have more confidence that we're using those tax dollars as efficiently as they can be used," Councilman Kevin Flynn said.

Flynn is especially happy with the annual performance management agreements signed by the city's department heads.

"Those are objective, analytic contracts where the department head signed off on them saying this is what I'll do performance-wise for you for the next year. Now after a year we come back, we've got something to measure. So we know whether the office is performing or not."

Flynn added, "It makes it easier for everyone to have a degree of feeling that we can rely on what we're doing. We're not having to believe what someone says. We can back it up."

Work done in the Innovation Lab has already helped city workers shorten the time it takes obtain a certain development permit from 10 weeks to three weeks.

Black said a problem-solving project launched in the Innovation Lab will save Cincinnati thousands of dollars annually by avoiding late fees on hundreds of bills the city receives from vendors.

Black said it's another example of the power of measuring data.

"This operation will more than pay for itself over time," Black said. "In terms of cost avoidance, cost savings and the goodwill that we're going to develop and enjoy as a result of doing our work better."